I just don't know WHY he's waking....

For the last 4-6 weeks, Peter has taken to waking at night, every 2-3 nights (he'd been sleeping right through for the last 4 months or so). Its any time between 1-3am and cries and cries and the only thing that gets him back to sleep is a bottle. I just cannot work out WHY he is waking. His cry is not obviously one of pain or fear or hunger....its just crying. We try the dummy, and patting and rocking, panadol and anything else we can think of. He will go back to sleep if we rock him, but he wakes the second we put him down.

So needless to say we always end up resorting to giving him a bottle, which I think is now becoming a habit.

Last night we tried a kind of "comforted crying" approach rather than giving a bottle- whenever we have done this, he has protested for about 20 minutes, then gone to sleep. Last night was an hour! In desperation we ended up giving a bottle again and he went straight to sleep!

I just wish I knew WHY he was crying so I knew what to do about it. He is getting molars through, but they don't seem to be causing him too much trouble and panadol doesn't seem to assist in getting him back to sleep. He's very clingy, so maybe separation anxiety?

Argh, any ideas? Our next plan is to continue to give him a bottle and gradually water it down so it isn't such an incentive to wake anymore. (this is how we weaned him off his night bottle initially). Any other suggestions gratefully appreciated!

its tough was going to suggest the water but you have already done that! DD1 is the same, she has a bottle of water at bedtime and I make sure she has a toy to cuddle is she wakes up and she can turn on her rainforest soother herself to play music its a godsend. She still wakes up for milk about 5am but she settles herself until about 7.30am. Its the best we have been able to do or I would be up at the crack of dawn so I can't really give you any advice.

for me, i'd just be doing what works and waiting for it to pass..... if a bottle gets him to sleep the fastest, and also lets you get back to sleep fastest, then thats what i'd be doing...

how old is he? just my opinion but any 'habits' babies form don't take much at all to change, even something as major as a dummy only takes a couple of days to wean them from, so for me i'd just be doing what works - the phase will pass eventually.

good luck.

Ok so my suggestion is a little bit out there so take it with a grain of salt if you like. My g/f had this happening and she was told to worm her kids as her kids started waking suddenly. She did and her kids went straight back to sleeping peacefully. Apparantely the worms were crawling around the kids bottoms and waking them up. Just something to keep in the back of your mind.
Fingers crossed you can sort out Peter's sleeping so you can get some much needed sleep.

Just an thought :)
We have had some cooler nights here so maybe he is getting cold, warms up when cuddled etc.

DS was very unsettled when his molars came through - and they took for ever to come through properly.
He could also be hungry or thirsty... My DS still wakes for a drink (or even a snack) some nights.

And sometimes they just need the reassurance of their mummy or daddy....

Thanks all.

The worms is an interesting idea- his appetite has been insatiable lately!

I don't think its cold because its been happening over a range of temperature nights, but its worth keeping in mind.

I too sincerely hope its a phase. Last night was awful- he woke at 1am and we gave him a watered down bottle, but then he woke again at 3am and we couldn't really give him another bottle, so we let him whinge, going in every couple minutes or so, and he eventually went to sleep at 4:30am. I was hoping he would sleep in after that effort, but, no 6.15 and he was up and bright as a button. I am so freaking exhausted.

Please sent sleepy vibes. Please.

I'm sure it's a phase. My DS did this also at around that age (a pretty good sleeper at night usually before this 'phase'). The night you described last night was exaclty like the one we had with DS the night before DD was born (so no sleep and then labour all night the following night!). He was 17mths. By 2, he was back to sleeping just fine, but I recall going from newborns room to his room and back to newborns for a few months there....... Hopefully your phase will be short lived.

ETA : I never worked out why either, but it must be age related! Probably molars as someone else suggested.

No advice, but big sleepy vibes for you :hug: Like you said, hopefully it's a passing phase.

My first thoughts after reading your post is that he's hungry. You did mention in another post that his apetite has been insatiable lately. Have you tried to feed him more for dinner, or give him a bigger bottle/cup of milk before bed?